So in our ever present quest to identify our albacore... I took out our mystery sail that came with the boat we purchased.

The main sail we have been using is quite large and has a black AL stitched up top. The head of the sail almost meets the top of the mast and the clew very close to the outhaul.

This mystery sail has a blue AL and a number 717* off the top of my head. At any rate, I sailed it yesterday morning and noticed there was several feet left at the head of the sail to the mast and a few feet from clew to outhaul. The foot of the sail also didn't have the rope that is stitched in to feed into the boom.

Is this a storm sail? It is significantly smaller than the regular sail.

Sounds like the "mystery sail" is from some other class. For a mainsail to be class legal in the Albacore class, it has to have a bolt rope in the foot to slide in sail track in the boom. This sail is "loose footed" which is a configuration that you see on a Laser or V15.

I can't really speculate on what boat this sail came from, but it was probably intended as a storm sail for use in heavy air. I have a suit of sails from a 420 that I've used on high wind days, so it's not unheard of.

The community clubs in Toronto had a batch of mainsails cut down (bottom panel was removed) for classes to use in higher winds. A cringle and slider were put on at the clew, and a loop of rope added to extend to the outhaul.

These have proved very popular and have resulted in fewer classes being cancelled as well as reduced boat damage.